Bay Trail D is Intel's big quad-core hope for the desktop market and it looks like that this System on Chip part might lose its well-known Atom branding. From what we saw Intel plans to use the Celeron brand for entry BGA based SoC parts.

The list of processors includes the Celeron J1750 that is set to replace the D2550 Atom BGA Cedar View Atom as well as Celeron J1850 that should replace Celeron Sandy Bridge based 847 and 807 processors. The Pentium branded J2850 should be faster than Celeron 1007U based on the Ivy Bridge architecture and both of these Bay Trail D based BGA parts are coming in Q4 2013. At this time we expect to see the mobile version of Bay Trail as well.

Intel has high hopes for this new generation of Atom processors, which evidently won't have an Atom name at least, not in the desktop version, but will come with new and improved quad core as well as new DirectX 11 compatible graphics.

During a media event at GDC 2013 Intel announced that the new version of the IGP driver might bring pefromance improvements of up to 10 percent for the HD 4000 IGP.

The driver was originally developed for the upcoming Haswell processors but should also bring performance improvements, bug and stability fixes as well support for OpenCL 1.2 for Ivy Bridge owners as well. The performance improvement apparently comes as a result of better balancing load between GPU and CPU and should also lower power consumption.

It is still not clear if the new driver and its performance improvement have an effect on all Ivy Bridge CPUs or just the HD 4000 IGP. Intel is also working on a new driver for Sandy Bridge CPUs and their HD 3000 IGP.

The version 15.31 should be available for Ivy Bridge based system sometimes this week.

Ivy Bridge E, Intel’s ultra high end chip that is set to replace the Core i7 3970X, has been delayed. It doesn’t look like it was anything major. Our sources tell us that the decision was made by Intel server guys who did not want to launch this chip in Q3 as originally indented.

Since Q3 starts in July, a relatively slow month for IT, the normal time to launch products is late August or September, but at this time there is no confirmation that this will happen at this time.

Sandy Bridge E, or Core i7 3960X, was launched in Q4 2011, November 14th to be precise. This can give you a clue on when to expect the successor.

Originally Ivy Bridge E was supposed to launch in Q3, one quarter after the launch of quad-core Desktop Haswell processors. Ivy Bridge E works in X79 motherboards but we do expect that a few key motherboard vendors will have their newer versions ready for the launch of the new $999 flagship processor.

If Intel continues at this pace, it will take quite a while before we see Haswell E in action.

We have been following Intel for a very long time now, but we never saw the company ending the life of so many processors of the same brand at once.

As of Q1 2013 Intel plans to give as many as 20 processors of the Pentium breed PDN (Product discontinuance Notice) status, which is the first stage before the company announces their EOL (End of product Life). The list is mostly made up of Sandy Bridge parts including some low power parts.

PDN has been released for G645, a dual-core 2.9GHz clocked part based on Sandy Bridge 32nm, as well as G645T, G550T and G555 chips. The list also includes the G620, G870, G860T and G640. The will face the same destiny followed by G640T, G550, G540T, G860, G630, G630T and G460 parts. This is not all as G850, G465, G540, G530 and G530T are on the same list.

You will notice that despite the huge numerical branding difference some parts are evenly matched, for example the Pentium G645 and Pentium G850 are more or less the same part, just launched a year apart, and one is also meant for embedded. Take a look at these two compared here.

All of these doomed chips are expected to reach end of life (EOL) by Q3 2013. The only processor that goes off life support instantly is the Pentium G440. It has been in PDN status since Q2 2012 and has reached EOL in Q1 2013.

Currently the fastest Celeron that you can get inside of a notebook is the Celeron 887, a Sandy Bridge based 32nm chip. It is a U-series part that sits between 15W and 25W and has two cores.

The Celeron 887 is a dual-core with two threads and 1.5GHz clock, 350MHz graphics that can clock all the way to 1000MHz, has 2MB of cache, DDR3 1333 support and 17W TDP.

Intel plans two Ivy Bridge 22nm Celerons to take its place in the lower end market segment called U Dual Core VC1. The one that replaces 887 is called Celeron 1007U and has the same 1.5GHz core clock, two threads, the same graphics, memory and cash size speeds.

The difference is of course that Ivy Bridge 22nm core should bring some performance boost over the 887 at the same speed and it will generate less heat at the same clock.

The new processor that will lead this U Dual core VC1 market is called Celeron 1037U and this dual-core with two threads now works at 1.8GHz speed, keeping the thermal envelope at the desirable 17W level. It comes with Intel HD graphics with the same 350 / 1000MHz clocks and it comes with DDR3 1333 support, 2MB cache and 17W TDP.

With the Celeron 1000 series and Ivy Bridge 22nm dual-cores, Intel makes this market segment even stronger in 2013. Having a Celeron based on Ivy Bridge 22nm just two quarters after the new architecture was introduced looks good.

In addition to a handful of mobile Core i5 and i7 CPUs scheduled for Q1 2013, as well as a few ULV parts including the Ivy Bridge-based Celerons, Fujitsu's product site for the Lifebook NH532 has revealed two more Intel CPUs, probably scheduled for the same time frame, the Core i3-2348M and the Core i5-3230M.

Judging by the designations and some specifications revealed by Fujitsu, the Core i3-2348M seems based on the Sandy Bridge architecture, works at 2.3GHz and features 3MB of L3 cache. As a part of the Core i3 mobile series, this dual-core will feature Hyper Threading and Intel HD 3000 graphics, but will lack some features like Turbo Boost and Small Business Advantage tools. The performance will most likely be identical to the Core i3-2350M.

The Core i5-3230M is based on Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture and works at 2.6GHz base and 3.2GHz maximum Turbo clock. This dual-core CPU packs 3MB of L3 cache, supports Hyper Threading, features Intel HD 4000 graphics and has a 35W TDP. The new Core i5-3230M is a direct successor to the Core i3-3210M and will be available in both BGA and PGA packages. The same CPU will be an option in Asus' G55VW 15.6-inch gaming notebook.

Intel has accelerated its plans to transition to the next generation 22nm Haswell core. It is supposed to launch in Q2 2013 from what we know and at this time it won’t storm much of the desktop market.

The current plans for desktop CPU transition state that in the first half of 2013 less than five percent of all Intel desktop processors shipped will have a Haswell core. Sandy Bridge E will remain fixed at its one to two percent, as it always was, while Ivy Bridge is destined to take some 75 percent of total processor shipped.

Atom remains fixed at less than 5 percent, while Sandy Bridge remains at slightly over than 10 percent. These are estimate numbers, of course. This is what Intel hopes and expects and sometimes it doesn’t live to its expectation.

The projection for the desktop mix in 2H 2013 looks rather interesting, as Sandy Bridge will remain with very small market share, well below Atom market share that stands fix at around 5 percent. According to the latest Intel plans Sandy Bridge should stay within one and two percent in 2H 2013 market share.

Ivy Bridge will decline to 60 to 65 percent while Haswell could occupy a massive 20 percent of market share in the second half of 2013. This is definitely a smaller ramp than with Ivy Bridge, that started with some less than five percent in first half of 2012, only to grow to 35 percent in second half of 2012.

Haswell won’t be able to grow that fast, and we remain curious about the cause. It might be that Haswell will have an aggressive role on the mobile front as with its 10 W TDP possibility it might end up quite attractive.

At this time, these are the desktop numbers and the mix that is expected for the latter part of 2013.

Intel thinks that G555 and G550 Celerons clocked at 2.7GHz and 2.6GHz respectively won’t be enough to ensure dominance in this market segment in 2013 and therefore the outfit plans two new Celeron processors based on the new Ivy Bridge core.

The replacement for fastest available Celeron to date, the G555 is called G1620 and it runs at the same 2.7GHz core clock. The rest of the specification is also hardly impressive as the Celeron G1620 has 2MB of cache, two cores and two threads just like the old Celeron. The memory supported on the new Celeron jumped to 1333MHz instead of 1066MHz for the G555 and HD graphics work at 650/1050MHz.

Since this is a brand new graphics core even at 650MHz base clock it might have a chance at being significantly faster than the previous Celeron G555 in graphics application, mainly casual games. The TDP remains at the same 55W and the memory controller supports two-channel memory.

The replacement for G550 Celeron clocked at 2.6GHz and based on Sandy Bridge is Celeron G1610 clocked at the same 2.6GHz with 2MB memory two cores and two threads and memory at 1333MHz. This processor is simply 100 MHz slower than the G1620 and everything else remains the same. The third member of the Celeron family the Celeron G1610T is a 2.3GHz clocked Ivy bridge based with 2MB cache and two cores and two threads but despite its 650 to 1050MHz graphics it can comfortably fit in a 35W TDP envelope.

Let me remind you again that Ivy Bridge based cores including these three Celerons are manufactured in 22nm. The scheduled launch timeframe is Q1 2013 and until then Celeron G555 based on 32nm Sandy Bridge remains the market leader in the Celeron V2 segment.

The Core i7 2700K, an unlocked 3.5GHz Sandy Bridge part, will meet its marker even sooner than many expected. Intel has decided that this processor launched in Q4 2011 and currently priced at $342 for boxed version is ready for processor discontinuance notice as soon as Q4 2012.

This means that in this quarter Intel plans to take last orders for the processor and will continue to ship them to customers until the EOL or end of lifecycle for this product that is planned in Q2 2013, or two quarters later.

If Intel ends up with some extra stock, it will surely ship it to customers but these are the official rules.

Core i7 2700K is not alone in PDN and EOL plans. Core i7 2600 and 2500K will also get product discontinuance notice in Q4 2012 and will reach the end of its professional career in Q2 2013 and it’s no coincidence that this happens days before scheduled Haswell launch.

It’s worth mentioning the Core i7 2700K, 2600K and 2500K are all unlocked Sandy Bridge 32nm based processor and that today’s enthusiast feel much better when they buy Core i7 3000K series based on Ivy Bridge 22nm.

In addition to a couple of mobile Pentium CPUs based on both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge architectures that will be launched at the end of Q3 or early Q4, Intel will also launch the Pentium 997 ULV CPU, a dual-core 1.6GHz CPU with 17W TDP.

The full list of new mobile Pentium CPUs includes Sandy Bridge based 987 and B980 as well as the Ivy Bridge based 2020M and 2117U CPUs. The last but not the least is the Pentium 997 ULV, spotted by CPU-World.com. Similar to the already detailed Pentium 987, the Pentium 997 ULV is also based on Sandy Bridge architecture, has two CPU cores, 2MB of L3 cache, integrated HD graphics and does not feature any advanced technologies like Hyper-threading or Turbo Boost.

The CPU works at 1.6GHz and has a 17W TDP. The Pentium 997 ULV is clearly a budget ULV part as it will end up slower than Ivy Bridge based Intel Pentium 2117U CPU.

Some of these CPUs have already shown up in some notebook specs sheets and we will probably see more of them in the Q4.